We’re so pleased to share a video of lisa shatzky reading her newest poem Beautiful Black Man, a poem to the memory of George Floyd. lisa shatzky’s newest book of poetry A Thousand Ways to Kiss the Earth will be launching this October, and is a book of poetry that addresses current events and the… Read more »
Lisa Shatzky has written an article in Running Room Magazine about her personal relationship with running. She feels a connection between long-distance running and poetry, and how it affects the body and mind. Lisa has an upcoming poetry book with Black Moss Press, to be officially launched fall 2015. You can view the article at the link below: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/37f5d06c#/37f5d06c/67 … Read more »
Congratulations to Black Moss Press author Lisa Shatzky. Her work Blame it on the Moon has been shortlisted for the 2014 Acorn-Platos Poetry Award! Curious who the winner might be? They’ll be announcing the winner some time in November! We’ll be sure to follow up.
Poet Michael Dennis has posted a lovely review of Lisa Shatzky’s Blame it on the Moon. To read what Dennis had to say about this great book of poetry, click here.
Lisa Shatzky’s poetry has been published in The Vancouver Review, Room Magazine, Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, The Nashwaak Review, The Antigonish Review, The Vancouver Sun, The Dalhousie Review, Canadian Literature, Canadian Woman’s Studies, The Prairie Journal, Jones Ave., The New Quarterly, Monday’s Poem, and has published six chapbooks by Leaf Press (edited by Patrick Lane)…. Read more »
Congratulations to Black Moss author Lisa Shatzky whose book Do Not Call Me By My Name was just shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award. The award, issued by the League of Canadian Poets, recognizes the best first book of poetry by a Canadian. Lisa is up against five other authors to win the $1,000 prize. Here is the full short-list:… Read more »
A lovely review has been written by Bernice Lever, a poet and freelance editor on Bowen Island, BC. The review is expected to be published in David Fraser’s Ascents magazine. Read on…. “Blame It on the Moon”, Lisa Shatzky’s second book, if an exploration of her many philosophical questions about her personal and human… Read more »
Day 3 of out Poetry Advent Calendar brings us this beauty by lisa shatzky from her latest book A Thousand Ways to Kiss the Earth(2020). lisa’s newest collection of poetry addresses many of the problems facing the world today (the fires in Australia, climate change, etc…), her poems gently ask the reader to have courage… Read more »
Notre Dame
When Notre Dame cathedral caught on fire
we cried out oh no,
what a sight to behold,
oh what is happening to this world,
as the last giant softshell turtle died the same day.
When the cathedral was burning, walruses were falling to their deaths
because of disappearing ice,
polar bears starving,
the usual villages blowing up in far away places,
children forced to mine in the Congo.
Don’t get me wrong,
I loved Notre Dame,
stood in her abbeys more than once, wandered her corridors, gazed and fell in love
with her stained glass, touched her gargoyles with my eyes, savoured her bells,
their timeless sighs.
But the day Notre Dame was burning
the other cathedrals of the Earth were burning too – oceans forests rivers sky – each one
of them slowly collapsing around us but for a moment all we could see
was Notre Dame and I wondered why.
Maybe it was safer to store all our sadnesses
in the one fragile and ancient monument
we knew we could rebuild.
Maybe Notre Dame became our safe haven, our way of forgetting, our reprieve,
from mourning all the losses we could not talk about.
Maybe the urgent outpouring to rebuild her
was as if our collective hands were waving
frantically
in outer space
to the other galaxies and planets
in case anyone was watching,
as if to say:
we were here
we existed
we created beauty.
Remember us for this.
Lisa Shatzky’s newest collection of poetry, A Thousand Ways to Kiss the Earth, is being launched in October 2020, and to kick off the festivities we’re happy to present a video of Lisa Shatzky reading a poem from her latest book. We’re also pleased to share this interview with Lisa, created by the Bowen Island… Read more »
Many of Lisa Shatzky’s 45 poems in this collection are written in the second person. They address a ‘you’ who might be the reader but who sometimes seems to be the poet talking about herself. This commingling joins reader and poet in a heightened shared experience. In other poems, we meet Shatzky in her first-person… Read more »
Poetry at the Manor It’s been over a year since the last instalment of Poetry at the Manor, and it’s back and better than ever this time around with readings from Marty Gervais, Anna Yin, John B. Lee, Debbie Okun Hill, Roger Nash and Terry Burns. Vanessa Shields will also be presenting her popular “Poetry… Read more »
October 1st Poetry Reading: On October 1st Windsor Atelier Virginianne welcomed four Black Moss Press authors to the stage. Peter Hrastovec warmed the crowd up with his humorous poetry, specifically the piece from his latest book in which he makes the acquaintance of Earnest Hemingway. He was followed by Mary Ann Mulhern who rendered the room… Read more »
Here is a list of our many talented authors. We are working on adding links to their Black Moss Press published books for you to purchase. Akpata, Michael Badaoa, Samantha Beaudoin, Penny-Anne Beissel, Henry Bell, Roger Blomer, Yvonne Brodie, Barry Brown, Ronnie R. Bulmer, April Carter, Terry Ann Cook, Greg Cott, Gillian D’Alimonte, Carlinda Dabydeen,… Read more »
Do not call me
by my name
I am not singular
I am all the children who drowned.
I am all the children who could not speak,
and the ones who learned to fly
and all the ones who found their way back,
through the thistle anf the thorns,
through the abandoned years
and wasted scraps of memory,
carrying a pail full of blackberries
for the first time
at last
Story Circle Book Reviews recently published a thoughtful review of Lisa Shatzky‘s Do Not Call Me By My Name. Here’s a sample of what reviewer Mary Ann Moore had to say: I couldn’t help but be saddened by the poems and angered too by the residential school system and its long-lasting effects. In “Blackberries” the poet writes: “Even… Read more »
OnBowen.com has kindly posted a great video of Lisa Shatzky‘s launch and reading for her first poetry book Do Not Call Me By My Name. Here’s what OnBowen had to say about the reading: Accompanied by a wonderfully sensitive musician, Ruta Yawney on harp and flute, Lisa’s poetry was performed by herself, Don MacLean, Simon… Read more »
Lisa Shatzky read from Do Not Call Me By My Name in Nanaimo, B.C. on the 26th of September. She was joined on stage for some of the reading by Don MacLean. Lisa launches her book on Bowen Island on October 2nd.
“These poems are placed like cold steel beds lined up row upon row. Visceral. Lisa Shatzky writes in gunmetal residue—evidence bagged from Canada’s largest crime scene of the Residential School era. As she opened the vaulted doors into each child’s memory, she was slashed by tormented truth, laughter at lost blood, lost stories. In this… Read more »
